One thing to remember when trying to be an extra on a movie is this: you’re cattle. With all the extras that movies use, thinking that someone will be picked out of a crowd these days because they have potential that someone can see isn’t bound to happen since the number of actors in the business today is simply insane enough that if an extra doesn’t have representation and doesn’t have any real acting experience, the chances of being hit by lightning twice in the same day are far greater than ever being picked out of a crowd of extras. The days of people being discovered in this manner aren’t completely dead, but the average group of extras won’t be given a second look by a lot of people since they’re considered part of the backdrop, not talent that’s just waiting to be found. There was a time when those that really stood out might have been able to find their way into an audition and possibly become someone, but those days are pretty well over and done with at this point since many actors now have agents, representatives, are part of a union, a guild, and extras are kind of like props that can move when they’re told to do so. And if one of the props talks back and doesn’t do as they’re told right away? Well, they can be replaced just as easily as anything on the set, apart from the stars of the production.
That sounds brutal and it does give the impression that no one in Hollywood cares for extras, but that’s not entirely true. Extras are stage props more or less, but they still get paid or at least fed when they’re on the job, and there is an audition process that they have to go through in order to actually get on the set. Yes, extras actually do audition, but it’s more of a widespread casting call to see if they’ll fit in the scene rather than to see if they can act. Some extras might get a line here or there, some might get to interact with the stars of the movie, but the general idea is that they’re there to take up a spot and nothing else. There’s not bound to be any chance to sit and chat with the main actors, they’re not being brought on because they have an innate talent that can help them get discovered by a suddenly starstruck director, and they’re definitely not there to do anything other than what they’re told. That does sound like a rather boring time since they might be sitting or standing for hours so that a director can get the right shot. And it’s possible they’ll even be kicked off the set even after auditioning for the part. Like it or not, some directors do make changes in the middle of a movie and are meticulous enough to eliminate extras they don’t think work any longer. We don’t get to hear about it a lot, but it does happen.
There are plenty of famous actors that started out as extras, but this still shouldn’t be the benchmark for anyone since thinking that you’re going to walk onto a film set as an extra and have someone hand you a career is rather naive and definitely something that would only happen in a fictional movie. There are plenty of stories about famous actors being discovered in the most unlikely of ways and in just about every walk of life one could imagine, but as an extra on a movie set it’s not bound to happen that frequently since as an extra, people are looked at as a herd to be moved about as is needed for the movie. It’s interesting to think of what might happen if a director were to tell extras to ‘act natural’, which some directors might do, but it’s also easy to assume that people who know the camera is on them won’t act in a natural and completely honest manner. That’s just one reason why extras are treated the way they are since the whole idea behind being an extra is that one is there to give the movie a more realistic feeling since movies operate on the basis of reality in some sense and the reality is that there are a lot of people in the world and unless one is completely isolated, there will be other people out and about while the story is going on.
The main point of being an extra on a movie set is that as an individual you don’t get noticed, you don’t get a lot, or any, personal attention, and the fact of the matter is that you’re there to be a movable prop and not much else.
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